New to guild wars, have used search. questions

hi im new to guild wars... i know i should use the search and i have.. but the answers are so scattered.. so i figured i make a post instead.

i've read a lot of the threads and have played the game for 2 nights.. i hope someone can give me some expert advise on character builds..

i'm looking to build a PvE character .. i like the elementalist.. but i want to know what options i have for 2nd profession.

i tried a E/N to level 4 but it seems like the necro spells are hard to use for a new player while trying to cast elem spells too..

what would be a good 2nd profession for elementalist. or for that matter, i wouldn't mind having E as a 2nd profession.

I want a character that dishes high damage but with a 2nd profession that is versatile.. i thought about a monk 2nd prof. but i'm not a healer.. i dont find healing all day to be fun..

i guess i'm just looking for advise from people that have been playing this for awhile.. on what to avoid and whats good.

also it seems to me that to build any good character in guildwars.. the attribute points must be put a few of the attributes.. and not scattered into all the attributes..

huge damage with a 2nd profession that will aid my 1st profession.. not a jack of all trades type of character.. i thought about E/Me .. but can anyone go into detail about what a Me really can do in aiding my E..

any links.. would be great also.. right now my 2 sites are GWonline.net and guildwarsguru.com ..

thx.. sorry for the long post.. im really looking for advise so i can avoid wasting time and unneccesary pit falls..

thank in advance

For a starting player, E/Mo isn't a terrible choice. You can heal yourself a little bit, and still have the damage producing power of the elementalist. Particularly since your armor is low, it can be nice to have a bit of healing breeze or something kicking around.

E/Me is a very popular choice. Mesmers have spells called echo and arcane echo that allow you to recast a spell instantly. This is very useful for elementalists since some of their spells have atrocious recharges. Mesmers also have mantra of concentration, which prevents your spells from being interrupted, which counters another common problem with elementalists--long cast times.

Rico

The second profession mechanic is often misunderstood and often unnecessarily worried about. Just remember that you dont need to use your secondary profession, ever. Also remember that no secondary will be better than the other simply because there is so little difference between them. An E/N and an E/Me can be very, very different but will usually be exactly the same because they will use their primary skills a lot more.

Read above, dont use them together unless you need to.

Monk doesnt automatically mean healer, even if you do invest in healing skills it will probably be to save your own ass . Elementalists IMO have the worst self heals and its always good to be as self-sufficient as possible in the PvE part of the game.

Most or all of the damage you deal will be from your Primary. Mesmer is an excellent class for energy management, something that Eles may have trouble with.

I say this again and again but, there are no pit falls. There is nothing that you can do wrong. If you are dissatisfied with your character, bear with him for a while and you'll learn to appreciate it no matter what primary or secondary it is.

Agreed. Aura of Restoration is a bit of a joke really. Good for early PvE maybe.

I would probably go e/me or e/mo for a new elementalist.

Welcome to guild wars.

Agreed. Elementalists give a lot of damage. My suggestion would be to make the second class monk in order to heal yourself (not other people) and for a while you might want to try using fire magic, or any of it that has good area of effect skills, when fighting these help tremendously.

I think Aura of Restoration is merely a joke, even in pre-searing. One doesn't heal enough with it - at least I never do, but still I always have it there

Here's what I think of Eles possible combinations with various secondary professions:

E/Me - Ele deals damage, a lot, and may reach great amounts of energy, but mesmer's greatest ability Fast Casting is not there, so I think this combo is not the best of them all. It is fun in pre-searing, it is fun until you get to areas where the Casting Speed means something. It won't be useless after that, Ele is always good to have and some mesmer stuff will be useful - just don't make it too mesmer-oriented. Tried it few times and never quite found the perfect harmony between the two profs.

E/Mo - I highly recommend. Very useful to have those monk-stuff in early stages, and later in the game you can save the day by helping out monk(s) and adding some healing power to your team. But still I'd suggest having 6/8 skills for Ele-stuff.

E/N (Blood) - This combo works fairly well, and you can stay alive for a bit longer by draining opponents life power. And Necros have all the fun spells (Necrotic Traversal, for example) I want to cast with my Ele

E/W & E/R - never tried these, no comments

Oh, and welcome to Guild Wars

E/Me also has the benefit of Arcane Echo and Echo. 3 Meteor Showers can leave a nice crater.

when you get a little more than half way through the game you get some quests that allow you to change your secondary so your not stuck with it . also secondary usually only factors in your setup with a couple skills because the ability to buy runes for your primary profession makes it alot more effective. you cant go wrong picking your class however picking skills... if your not having fun or not being effective look at diffrent skills.

echo and archane echo are found quite a ways later in the game i believe or atleast close enough to the point where you can switch your secondary if you wanted to go that route.